Celebrating Architecture: Modern Homes that Inspire

In honor of National Architecture Week 2014 we’re celebrating architecture and its intimate impact on our daily lives by highlighting homes that inspire us.

The month of April is full of Residential Architecture inspiration:

Architectural Record publishes its Record Houses magazine– the designs included in this year’s edition are beyond stunning! As Cathleen McGuigan writes in her Editor’s Letter, How We Live..“The connection to the surroundings, the use of honest materials, a functional plan and the pursuit of refined detailing are first principles found in the best architecture…”

The AIA honors the best residential designs by announcing the winners of the 2014 Housing Awards in which the AIA recognizes “good housing as a necessity of life, a sanctuary for the human spirit, and a valuable national resource.”

AND Each day this week Studio MM has presented a #HouseoftheDay on our Facebook page, highlighting some of our favorite house designs and hopefully sending a little home design inspiration your way!

Today’s post pulls all of those beautiful projects together providing more information around each one….
Look around – what architecture is inspiring to you? #archweek14

From Bates Masi Architects: The clients gathered images of objects and conventional materials utilized in new, interesting ways as inspiration for the design. A single design solution that could unify the old remaining parts of the house to the new intervention was sought. This project preserved the skeleton of the house and the history in the patinaed materials that the client desired. images from Bates Masi Architects

From Olson Kundig Architects: Conceived as a bunker nestled into the rock, the Pierre celebrates the materiality of the site. “Putting the house in the rock follows a tradition of building on the least productive part of a site, leaving the best parts free for cultivation,” Kundig says. From certain angles, the house – with its rough materials, encompassing stone, green roof, and surrounding foliage – almost disappears into nature.photographer: Benjamin Benschneider

From Record Houses 2006: Well crafted inside and out, the nesting volumes utter not so much as a creak. The house maintains a quiet presence among the aspens, but if you peel back its layers and open its boxes to the sun’s rays, the whole ensemble becomes animated and really begins to speak. “At first glance, my architecture appears reserved – unlike my sculptural pieces, which are more gestural and clearly about the landscape – but the Box House may be deceptively simple,” suggested Lin. “As you gradually discover, it’s also quite playful.”
– By Sarah Amelar for Architectural Record photographer: Paul Warchol

From Aidlin Darling: Conceived as a series of interconnected pavilions enclosing a garden, the courtyard-house typology is utilized to achieve private interiority within the suburban context. The strategic interplay of light and shadow, expansion and contraction, solidity and lightness is used to derive spatial richness. The house incorporates fuel cell and solar panel technologies, passive cooling, greywater reclamation, and extensive use of reclaimed finish materials. images from Aidlin Darling

From BCJ: The residence at Combs Point is sited in a diverse natural world of glacial lake, deciduous and evergreen forest, valley and stream. It is both a center of activity and a quiet retreat for a family that treasures life on the lake. Slipped into the site with a light touch, the residence and its outbuildings possess a transparency that reveals the richly varied qualities of this natural place.photographer: Nic Lehoux